3 Strategy: Asking Questions before Reading

Asking questions before you begin reading is a great strategy to help your brain retain what you read and save time.

• What is my purpose for reading?
• What will I need to know when I finish?
• What will I be expected to do with the information, such as write a response, summarize, take a quiz, etc.?
• What is the topic of the material?
• What does the title suggest?
• What do the subheading, italics and summaries suggest?
• What do I already know?
• What do I already know about this topic or a related topic?
• Is this new topic a small part of a larger idea or issue that I have thought about before?
• How is the material organized?
• What is the general outline or framework of the material?
• Is the author listing reason, explaining a process, or comparing a trend?
• What will be my plan of attack?
• What parts of the textbook seem most important?
• Do I need to read everything with equal care?
• Can I skim some parts?
• Can I skip some sections completely?
• Turn the headings into questions so you have a plan for finding the main ideas.
• Make sure you have room to annotate for either finding vocabulary or developing a response.